Strengthening Social Security for the Long Run: Insights from 1983

In policy discussions about the long-term financing of Social Security, reforms enacted in 1983 are often held up as a model of balanced political compromise. But that is not exactly what happened. Only the short-term reforms, aimed at getting the program safely through the 1980s, contained a mix of changes that affected Social Security contributors and beneficiaries more or less evenly. The piece Congress added to address the remaining long-term shortfall was not a compromise. It was solely a benefit cut that is still being phased in today.